All or nothing?

I know it's wrong, but I've always had an all or nothing approach to fitness. I feel as though if I can't workout for 45 minutes or more, it's worthless.

The problem is, when I have to fit exercise into my own time, when there's no one around to mandate in my schedule, I can't have that mentality. Surprisingly, I'm just as busy now as I was in the military and I don't necessarily have a full hour each day. Sometimes, I don't even have 30 minutes. At one time, I wouldn't even bother if 30 minutes or less was all I had.

Luckily, new science is emerging that proves you can actually lose more weight by doing higher intensity workouts for less time. So, I do my best to get the most out of my time. Yet, I still feel like I should go longer. I'm not sure if that's because of having to do it for an hour a day, every day for 12 years, or if that's because I generally view life as all or nothing.

For the past two weeks I've been alternating between kettlebells, supersets, heavy lifting and intense cardio intervals. Other than the heavy lifting, these all accelerate your calorie burn. Basically, you burn more with less. Don't ignore heavy lifting though, which builds muscle. Muscle burns calories more efficiently than fat, so even at rest your body will incinerate calories if you're a regular lifter. Ladies, don't worry. You won't look like a body builder if you lift.

As I've mentioned before, I love two-a-days. I REALLY love them now that I may not have a full hour at a time. See, I just can't resist. Here's how my days have been looking lately:

Sunday: This is my superheavy lifting day. I'll usually 3 sets of 10 reps of the following: incline, flat and decline bench, still leg deadlifts, bent rows, wide arm, closed hand and regular push ups, dumbell flies and shrugs. I dont' workout out twice if I complete a workout like that, and I actually... gasp.. skip cardio.
Monday thru Friday: Morning: Treadmill intervals for 20-45 minutes, depending on what time I get my a$$ out of bed and what I have going on that day. These could be 60/120s, incline walking intervals, pyramid intervals, walking with weights, or a super long run. Evening: Kettlebells or lightweight, high repetition weight lifting or supersets. Then I follow with 15 minutes of some sort of ab work (usually).

Saturday: REST.

I might switch things around and do the lifting first, but I prefer cardio in the morning because it feels more energizing to me. When I lift light sometimes I'll stand on balance pods, so I can avoid doing actual lying on the floor ab work, which I hate. When you're off-balance while you workout your core is automatically engaged, so you're working your abs, witthout working your abs. It's pretty genius. If you don't have balance pods, try a rolled up towel.

With all this being said, I have to say, shorter, more intense workouts have helped me immensely. I lost about 8 pounds on Insanity, and I've lost about 3 more since I started my own random program. I guess it's true when they say something is better than nothing!

I'd like to hear from you. What do YOU do when you're pressed for time? Do you skip your workout or do the best you can in the time you have?